Dark Side 2: Silent Screams
Dark Side 2: Silent Screams is a stealth survival horror game with fantasy elements, developed by [[Enchanted Gaming|'Enchanted Gaming']]. Dark Side 2 was released on Xbox 360 in Turn 29. Gameplay The gameplay of Dark Side 2 is much like its predecessor, with enhanced enemies called 'The Shadows' 'and a new objective. The objective is to avoid ''The Shadows' '''using a new '''stealth mode. Game Modes Story/Campaign '- Play through the story '''Survival '- See how long you can survive against the shadows 'The Shadow '- Play as The Shadow and hunt down your opponents as quickly as possible. Multiplayer Survival mode and The Shadow mode are played offline, however you can compete against your friends on the leaderboard. Soundtrack A dynamic and clever mix of tense, horrific, scary, spooky, calm and relaxing music. '''Shocking/disturbing scene warnings Dark Side 2 features Gore, Brutal Deaths, as did Dark Side 1. Story Dark Side 2: Silent Screams'' takes place five years after the events of ''Darkside. You play as a new character, the player gets to choose to play as a Male or Female. The names for these characters are (Male: Lorenzo, Female: Katie) Whoever you choose doesn't affect the storyline outcome. Dark Side 2 is set in a grand mansion, you and your friends have heard some stories about the mansion which is suppose to be haunted. You plan on staying the night there and having a small party, after passing out from too much alcohol, you awake to find your friends missing. You see a trail of blood on the floor and at first think it's your friends playing a prank on you. Your character soon realizes it's no prank, much like prequel Darkside, you will use stealth to avoid not only one Shadow, but two Shadows, instead of notes, you'll be finding parts to create a weapon to kill The Shadows and you'll be finding your friends. You discover that one of The Shadows was Chris from Darkside, he was your friend who went missing years ago and was now thought dead. The story plays out, you get the parts to a weapon you think should kill The Shadows, you kill one of them however when it comes to Chris, you're not sure what to do. This is up to the player to decide. Additional Difficulty Mode After the player completes the story mode, they unlock a new difficulty for it: Horror Mode Difficulty. This makes the game a lot more challenging than before. Merchandise Physical Merchandise Action Figure: The Shadow ''- $12.99 '''Soundtrack CD: '''15 tracks - $6.49 '''Strategy Guide': $8.99 Reception Dark Side 2: Silent Screams debuted to underestimated sales and mostly negative reviews. Critics cited the gameplay as the only consistent, decent feature of the game. The story was universally panned, as was the setting. IGN "Dark Side 2: Silent Screams is the sequel to the original Darkside, which was a game that had its moments of horror, but maintained a restrained, controlled feel which only amped up the fear factor. While Darkside ultimately fell flat, at least there were a few redeeming qualities. How I wish the same could be said of its successor. Enchanted Gaming is a wild card these days, sometimes you get games as grand and epic as Middle Earth, and sometimes you get....Dark Side 2: Silent Screams. First, let's get the good out of the way. The gameplay from the first is back, and it's still tense at times. But the story this time around is convulted and you don't care about any of the characters, they're just teenage drunks. The fear here is nowhere near the first, the mansion is a boring setting, amplified only by the fact that a supposed murder took place there. The new enemy, The Shadows, are an interesting element, but never truly fleshed out. Dark Side 2 also has a survival mode and a mode where you play as the Shadows, but these are minor tack-ons that you'll find quite boring. In the end, Dark Side 2 is just about a picture perfect example of how not to do a sequel." OVERALL SCORE: 3/10.' GAMESPOT ''"No. Just no. After being one of those fans of the original Darkside, hoping it'd get a proper sequel (and a matching budget), I can safely apologize for feeling that way. This just doesn't work. I don't want to play as some teenage as*hole who gets wasted and is then hunted down by what are probably just effects of his hangover. The graphics look like a really good PS2 game, the gameplay, while good, can't save this one. Avoid at all costs, don't take my word for it, though. If you want to play it, go for it. Just don't come crying to me when you realize that it's probably the worst game released as of late." ''OVERALL SCORE: 2/10. GAME TRAILERS ''"Dark Side 2: Silent Screams had potentially unlimited things going for it. On the heels of a somewhat-successful predecessor, Enchanted Gaming could've put together a gem for a stealth-horror game. Instead, we get a half-assed problem-ridden sequel. It's clear that Middle Earth took priority over this. There's no excuse for this. The story is so ridiculous that I, at times, questioned whether this was one gigantic joke or not. The gameplay is similar to the predecessor, and incidentally is the only redeeming factor. Extra modes mean nothing when the game just isn't as good as it should've been. With sequels, we need to see the quality go up, not down. I'd abandon this series while you're ahead, Enchanted." ''OVERALL SCORE: 3/10. Sales/Post-Release '''''Dark Side 2 wasn't able to achieve the sales of it's predecessor and underperformed heavily. Dark Side 2 debuted at #8 selling 54,000 copies, a huge decline to Darkside's'' 300,000. In it's second week of release, ''Dark Side 2 rose two spaces to #6 with sales of 39,000 Third week of release Dark Side 2 ''fell 6 spots to #12 with sales of 19,250. This was the last week on the chart. ''Dark Side 2's sales concluded to 114,083.